Not much to report today except that I only have one drain in my body! This morning I emptied my drain on the right side and it was 48 hours of having 30 mL or less of fluid coming out. So I called the reconstructive surgeon's office and told them I wanted to get the drain taken out. I went in at 1p with mom. She got to see the tube being taken out, what the tissue expander looks like (I have a picture) and the silicone one that I will have placed inside me. Hopefully on Monday I will be going in to get the last drain taken out of me. It feels so nice to have the one out on the right side. I can now lean on my right side and maybe even sleep on my right side tonight. That will help with the kink in my neck.
I also finished the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. That's a fun series. I enjoyed it.
So, let me finish with my stay in the hospital. I believe I was on Monday, June 18.
I woke up early that morning to the junior doctors doing their rounds. The first batch came in at 6a. That was the reconstructive doctors. They said that I was healing well. They also took a look at my pain ball. They said that it was low, but I still had some left. They could fill it if I needed it. Then they left and I was left to fall back asleep... which I did quickly. Then at 7 the next round of junior doctors came in. This time it was the surgeons. The doctor who wanted to discharge me the day before was there. He said that he saw that I was having nausea issues and that's why I never left. Then his little doctor wanted to look at my wounds. Then she wanted to look at the other side, but instead of walking around the bed, she tried to lean over me and look. I told her to please go around. But then the other doctor said that it was okay, she didn't have to look because plastics had already been through. She said okay and then left with the other doctor. By that time I was already awake, so I asked Brad to order me some breakfast. I knew by the time it came, it would be 8. Breakfast came around 8... french toast and hashbrowns. It was good. And surprise... Cathy was my day nurse again! It was a surprise. She said she normally doesn't work three days in a row. But we were happy that she was my nurse again because she rocked. She got my discharge papers all ready to go. She got my prescriptions and gave them to Brad to fill at the pharmacy at OHSU. Meantime, I got a visit from Newman. It was nice to see him. He's been with us on this OHSU trip since practically the beginning. It was the only visitor other than Bill who I allowed to come into my room. He had me laughing so hard... and I told him to stop because it hurt so much. I couldn't breathe too deeply. Then they left to go drop off my prescriptions. Brad hung around the hospital room for awhile before he left to go get some breakfast. He wanted to make sure he was here if Dr. Naik came to the room. He came back and she still hadn't come.
In the meantime, we talked to Cathy because we wanted to get my pain ball refilled. Oh my gosh! What a pain! First they said they weren't going to fill it. Then Cathy couldn't find a doctor to get a prescription to get it filled. Turns out there was some sort of conference going on. So then she went and paged the head of plastics to get this taken care of. Then the pharmacist came into the room and said the same thing... but they were mixing my pain ball prescription so I could leave. They wouldn't be able to give me the ball until the prescription was done and signed, but they could at least get it ready. Then the pharmacist left. Cathy came in and told me what was going on. Then a little later, the pharmacist came in and said that they were supposed to fill my pain ball up on Saturday, but they never did. So push come to shove, I got my pain ball prescription. In the meantime, the physical therapist came in and gave me some exercises to do while I recover. Wonderful. She made me practice some and she also made me practice getting out of bed and walking around the room. She was impressed with my mobility. Somewhere in that time I ordered lunch. Cathy also came in and said that she was waiting for the pain ball stuff, but in the meantime she was going to lunch. If it came in, she said she told her fellow nurse that a doctor had to be paged to exchange the ball. We told her we wouldn't leave the hospital until she came back from lunch. She wanted to say good bye to us and same for us. Finally the pain ball came in and we told the fill in nurse that she was supposed to call the doctor to give it me. She said that she changes them all the time. Whatever. She left with my prescription and about 10 minutes later, Cathy was back with it. She ended up hooking me up to it. We got it working and it was working good because I could feel the medication numbing up my chest area. I wonder how long I had been without it. Hmmm...
Oh yes, Brad decided to take some of our stuff to the car. It was at that time, Dr. Naik appeared. She was doing some rounds. I had to call Brad because he had questions for her. She stopped in for just a few minutes and then left.
Finally... shortly after 1, Cathy wheeled me out of the hospital and I was on my way home. I got home and both girls were napping. It was nice that I came home to a quiet house. I went upstairs and laid in bed reading. Amelia was the first on who woke up. Brad brought her into my room and I just started crying. I was so happy to see her. It had been three full days where I didn't see or talk to her and it was great to see her... know why I am going through this hell. Elaina came in later and I got to kiss her. Sweet thing. Dinner was good... left overs. I didn't have a huge appetite, but it was nice just to be home. I didn't spend too much time downstairs, but I spent enough time to see my family.
At around 730 that night, I got a call from Cathy. She was leaving for the night and thought that she forgot to unclasp the clasp on the tubing to make the medication go. I told her that she did do her job and that the pain medication was flowing so nicely now. Crazy, huh? So that's how my stay ended up!
No comments:
Post a Comment